


In All My Dreams

by madamguillotine



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: First Kiss, I am determined to make this a thing, M/M, Watching Someone Sleep, charlie is a feelings sherpa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23159545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamguillotine/pseuds/madamguillotine
Summary: Todd Anderson talks in his sleep and says just enough to the right person. Can Neil Perry handle it?(Title taken from "In All My Dreams I Drown" from The Devil's Carnival Soundtrack (the first TDC))
Relationships: Charlie Dalton/Knox Overstreet, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Kudos: 81





	In All My Dreams

Neil doesn’t sleep well at the best of times, but his first few nights back at Helton are always… well… hell, and meeting a pair of blue eyes with golden hair doesn’t help. Then, only to find out he’s _rooming_ with this blue-eyed, golden boy doesn’t help. What _really_ doesn’t help is that Todd Anderson sleeps like a rock. Neil is never going to sleep again.

Neil got out of bed and padded over the window, quietly. He opened it and inhaled the warm September air that was quickly cooling in the night. His ears pricked up with he heard something, it was soft, like a whisper. What is that noise? He sat back down on his bed which creaked and groaned with age. He waited to hear again, listening carefully. He walked silently around the room. Oh. His new roommate _does_ have a flaw… he talks in his sleep. Great.

Over the next few weeks as Neil and Todd got more comfortable with each other, Todd’s night-time speaking began getting more distinguishable and audible. Neil swears he could make out a few words, occasionally. After about a month of spending nearly every waking moment with each other, now that Todd has ingratiated himself in with his group of friends, much to Neil’s relief, he laid there turning over the day in his mind, trying to make his life in the shape he wanted.

“…neil...”

“Yeah?” he said automatically. He realized that Todd, his golden boy with the pale eyes, said _his_ name. Was he dreaming about him? He must be, right? Neil’s mind raced with the possibilities. Over the next few days, he’d pinch his skin or pull at his hair to keep himself awake as long as he could stand, just to hear again for his name to cross Todd’s sleeping lips. Which it did, frequently.

The night after a particularly noisy night, they dressed.

“Todd… I don’t know how to ask you this…”

“Oh… okay…”

“What were you dreaming about last night?”

Todd turned away, with the guise of putting his pajamas under his bed. He was turning red from blush.

“I never remember my dreams…”

Neil eyed him over, but unable to see his face it was hard to establish veracity. So, he had no choice but to believe him. For now. But in his mind, a plan hatched.

That night, as Todd began mumbling, Neil turned over to look at him.

“Todd are you awake?”

“…neil…”

“What are you dreaming about?”

“…kissing Neil…” he mumbled, almost sounding sad.

“What did you say?” he whispered as loud as he dared.

“…I want to kiss Neil…”

Neil turned over to stare at the ceiling. He decided not to press it any further, after all, he didn’t want to disturb Todd’s sleep. Even though the words bounced around his head like an echo in a canyon, making sleep an impossibility. He’d consult with Charlie; he’s daring enough to know what to do. Even if he didn’t, Charlie would find the humour in this humourless situation.

The next afternoon, he knocked on Charlie’s door.

“Give us a minute!” There was the sound of shuffling, the creak of a bed and the sound of someone throwing themselves into a wooden desk chair. Charlie opened the door, tie loosened, hair mussed, and Neil swore his bottom lip was swollen. He smirked and stood aside to let him in. Neil entered and looked around. For all intents and purposes, he and Knox were having an intense study session.

“Can we talk?”

“Okay! Talk!” Charlie said sitting on his bed and reclining into the wall behind him.

“Alone?”

“I’ll go. I’ll see you at dinner,” Knox tried to say as platonically as he could, he fumbled to get his things and left with a smack on the butt from Charlie.

“So?” Charlie cross his arms, “What’s the big secret?”

“Todd talks in his sleep…”

“And you interrupt us for _that_? Get some earplugs if it bothers you so much!”

“He said, in his sleep, he was dreaming about kissing me!”

“And you _want_ him to be having wet dreams about you?” Charlie said, raising an eyebrow, accusingly.

“This is serious, Charlie!” Neil snapped, getting frustrated.

“Okay. Okay. Kiss him, then! What’s stopping you?”

“Nolan, the law, the school’s morality code, expulsion…”

“I see your point. But, they can’t stop you telling him you know he wants to kiss you. You want to kiss him back, don’t you? Carpe Diem!”

“But-“

“Carpe”

“I can’t-“

“Diem”

Knowing that was the end of end of their conversation, as Charlie had picked up his chemistry textbook and disinterestedly flipped through it. He watched him over the lip of the book as Neil left, exasperated. He knew if this went on much longer, Neil would never sleep again. They’d known each other since they both were enrolled at Helton and he’s never fallen this hard for a boy before, but he’s gotten to know Todd a lot since the beginning of the semester, and he really was something special. And his soft eyes were just the kind of thing Neil would go for. So, he decided he’d speak to Todd about it tomorrow.

Charlie knocked on their door. Todd opened it a crack to see who was there before opening it all the way.

“Is Neil here?”

“No, he’s rowing, I think…”

“Good. It’s you I wanted to talk to,” Charlie said pushing past him and sitting on Neil’s bed. He gestured for Todd to sit.

“What about?”

“You talk in your sleep,” Charlie lighting a cigarette.

“I don’t-“

“You want to kiss Neil,” he said cutting his pussy-footing around off at the pass.

“That’s silly, I-“ Charlie held up a finger to silence him.

“And he already knows,”

“Oh…” he sounded so defeated.

“So, here’s what we do…” he said tenting his fingers, conspiratorially.

That night, Todd laid down in his bunk, pretending to sleep. Neil was reading by the light of a small lamp by his bed. He flicked it off and settled into his mattress. Todd mumbled in his pretended sleep biding his time until he heard the tell-tale squeak and groan for Neil turning over in his bed.

“Todd?” he tried, with his usual trepidations 

“…neil…” Todd answered with is best fake sleep talk he could muster.

“What are you dreaming about?” he asked, hoping to hear the words he heard last night. Words like this needed the moonlight, he could never say this in the day time.

“Kissing you,” Todd mumbled, trying not to let his lips curl into the broad grin they wanted to form. He couldn’t hide it, so he sat up quickly, giving Neil a start. They sat up on their beds looking at each other, examining each other’s searching expression in the soft glow of the moon.

Simultaneously, they stood up and closed the distance between them. The wrapped each other in their arms and stood there a moment. They pulled their heads back and pressed a kiss onto each other’s lips. It wasn’t a kiss that would go down in general history, but would live on for them as the sweetest kiss they’d ever tasted.

“I dreamed of this moment…” Todd said breathlessly, touching their foreheads together.

“I know. I heard you!”


End file.
